Tag Archives: Options Industry Conference

It took 30 minutes of Spencer messing up his lines for us to get 2 minutes of commentary about the Options Industry Conference which was held in Amelia Island, Fla. from May 2 through May 4. Next year’s conference will be hosted by MIAX and held in… Miami!

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Kennedy Looks to Lead Market Revamp Kevin Kennedy is my new hero. The senior vice president and head of equity options, on stage at the Options Industry Conference last week, spoke about taking the lead on a new initiative to change the existing financial and regulatory structure for financial markets. And he urged the other exchange executives from the other four major options markets to join him. In today’s political environment, it takes courage for someone to stand up and say they want to fix the financial markets so they stay the envy of world capital markets. And there is…

U.S. equity options leaders said today’s market structure needs fixing and vowed to work together to address it at the Options Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Among some of the structural problems are a perceived lack of liquidity, a rigid regulatory structure that has supported the fragmentation of markets, and a concentration of volume on a relatively small number of listings. Kevin Kennedy, who serves as senior vice president, head of U.S. options at Nasdaq, called for the exchanges and participants to work together to upgrade the market structure so it works better and more efficiently in the coming years….

Henry Schwartz, president of Trade Alert, gave his annual “State of the Options Industry” address at the Options Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, and painted a more optimistic picture than recent portrayals in the press. Yes, options volumes for 2017 are predicted to be flat to slightly up, a bit more than 4 billion contracts, but to Schwartz, that is a good number given the lack of volatility. Another positive is that more institutional users are appearing in the options market. According to his calculations based on regulatory filings, some 100 institutions enter options markets annually while 85-90 drop…

As the 35th Options Industry Conference gets underway, OCC Chairman and CEO Craig Donohue spoke with John Lothian News about everything from the industry’s first woman to be awarded the Joseph Sullivan Award to executive changes at the clearinghouse. Gina McFadden served in the options industry for almost 40 years. She served as president of The Options Industry Council (OIC) from 2006 to 2013 and executive vice president at The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). She retired from both of those positions in September 2013. At OIC, McFadden was responsible for business and product development, corporate communications, and investor and internet…

BATS Global Markets has a hand in both equities and options, and its options market, though relatively new, is holding its own among the growing list of options exchanges. John Lothian News’ Sarah Rudolph caught up with Kapil Rathi, a VP of options business strategy at BATS (along with Jeromee Johnson), and Bryan Harkins, BATS executive vice president and head of U.S. markets, at the Options Industry Conference in Miami Beach earlier this month, where she spoke to them about BATS’ plans for a new exchange, how to grow the pie in the options space, BATS’ new proposal for small-cap…

At the Options Industry Conference this year, the exchange leaders panel directly followed a presentation by Andy Nybo, head of derivatives at The Tabb Group, that offered a rather bleak look at the options industry. Total volume year-to-date was down 8.7 percent compared to a year earlier, bid-ask spreads have been getting wider, and options exchanges are finding it difficult to compete in a field of 12-going on-14 players. Given that “dark cloud” the industry appears to be under, moderator John Lothian asked the panel what the industry could do to turn it around. Exchange leaders agreed that the lack…

Industry players are gearing up for this year’s Options Industry Conference. One of the key speakers at the event is Michael McClain, president and COO of The Options Clearing Corporation. We talked with McClain in advance of the conference about the changes at OCC and their effect on its resilience and risk management capability. He also looked at securities lending, options education, and the controversy over OCC’s capital plan. The company has made a number of management changes since it was designated a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU). The changes include increasing the number of public directors. The significant…